Agharta

Sonoma County region

Diamond Plus! Selection - 95 Points Robert Parker

Until Pax Mahle, few Californians had attempted to capture the magic of the Northern Rhône, crafting great Syrah from relatively cool microclimates. Mahle had spent years studying wine, selling wine, and drinking wine, and his course was set to become a Master Sommelier – that was until a fateful trip to France and a visit to one of the world’s most heralded vineyards that he realized his destiny was to be one among the vines, growing grapes and crafting his own interpretation of world-class wines. His first winery (Pax Wine Cellars) launched in 2000 and Mahle established himself as a pioneer of high-altitude, cool-climate Syrahs. He also came to symbolize the arrival of a new collecting genre – Cult Syrahs – as his wines consistently began to garner 90+ scores from Robert Parker (the highest earning an unheard-of 98 Points!). The project for Agharta Wines began in 2004 when Mahle found himself with a couple of (yet) unproven vineyards that had what he believed it would take to make some spectacular Syrah. He kept his first vintage resting in barrel for 58 months so that once it was bottled it would stand above anything and everything he had crafted prior – and it did. The wine was named Agharta after an underground recording by Miles Davis, which was in reference to a mystical place on Earth where the hills are made of gold and the rivers run with wine…a fitting name for such a gorgeous wine that proves to be worth the wait with each highly anticipated vintage.